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The Stanford Daily

THURSDAY October 20, 2011

An Independent Publication
www.stanforddaily.com

Volume 240 Issue 20

Alpine Trail debate mounts

San Mateo County to vote on Stanford offer for trail
By ILEANA NAJARRO San Mateo County supervisors vote Nov. 1 on whether to accept Stanfords $10.2 million offer to repair the 1.8mile stretch of the Lower Alpine Road Trail and complete a decade-long project detained by conflicting residential opinions. Officials have until Dec. 31 of this year to accept the fund. If they refuse the offer, the funds will go to Santa Clara County for recreational activities for Stanford residents. The full Alpine Road trail extends from the corner of El Camino Real and Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto to a mile into Portola Valley and includes a portion of the Stanford Loop trail. The plans to build the trail network stem from agreements in Stanfords 2000 General Use Permit with

ALISA ROYER/The Stanford Daily

San Mateo County is debating whether to accept Stanfords $10.2 million offer to repair the Lower Alpine Road Trail, which extends from the corner of El Camino Real and Sand Hill Road to a mile into Portola Valley and includes a portion of Stanford Loop trail.

Please see ALPINE, page 2

NEWS BRIEFS

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Palo Alto approves new firefighter contract

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Sixteen months of negotiations between the city of Palo Alto and its firefighters came to a conclusion Monday night when the Palo Alto City Council voted unanimously to ratify a new three-year deal with the union. The new contract imposes a second pension tier for new workers and requires employees to contribute to their pension and medical costs. The new contract also no longer includes the minimumstaffing provision,which requires 29 firefighters to be on duty at all times. Other city labor groups such as the Service Employees International Union, Local 521 and the non-unionized group of professionals and managers have also recently accepted second pension tiers and requirements to contribute toward their medical premiums. The contracts ratification ends the binding-arbitration process that began after the city declared an impasse in negotiations in February. The new concessions will save the city of Palo Alto approximately $1.1 million in the current fiscal year and $1.4 million annually in future years. Combined with rising revenues and savings, the $1.1 million in savings negotiated in new contracts will likely stave off projected personnel cuts for the current fiscal year, according to the City Council Finance Committee at its Tuesday meeting. Revenue from documentary-transfer tax and from sales tax are both up $1.2 million above projections, and hotel taxes have exceeded projections by $600,000. The removal of the minimumstaffing provision will also allow the city to save money by reducing Fire Department staffing. The citys Policy & Services Committee will review a more detailed report on ways to reduce Fire Department staffing levels in November.
Ivy Nguyen

Students remain unaware of CAB initiatives

By MARIANNE LEVINE
DESK EDITOR

Four weeks into autumn quarter,the ASSUs Community Action Board (CAB) remains in its quiet change stage, according to ASSU Vice President Stewart Macgregor-Dennis 13. The ASSU announced the creation of the CAB spring quarter last year. According to its blueprint posted on the ASSU website, the CAB held its first meeting the second week of school and is currently planning its first campus-

wide event to be held during mid November. The CAB, chaired by Aracely Mondragon 13, represents 23 on-campus communities. According to the CAB website, the represented communities for the 2011-12 academic year include the African American Fraternal and Sororal Association, the API community, the African American community, the Chicano/Latino community, the Christian community, the Corporate Diversity Leadership Coalition, the First Generation and Low-Income community, the Interfraternal Greek

community, the Interfaith/Religious community, the Jewish community, the LGBTQ community, the Multicultural Greek community, the Muslim community, the Native community, the Polynesian community, the Power to ACT:Abilities Coming Together community, the StudentAthletes community, the Womens community and the Undefined/Undetermined community. Though the CAB does not represent every community on campus, board representatives

Please see COMMUNITY page 5

Collecting for cancer

RESEARCH

Study finds selfishness can yield respect

By ALEXIS GARDUNO Individuals who act in their own selfinterest are more likely to gain prestige and leadership recognition than those who exhibit altruistic characteristics, according to a recent study. Stanfords Graduate School of Business (GSB) collaborated with Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management and Carnegie Mellon Universitys Tepper School of Business on the report, which was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Robert Livingston, co-author of the study and an assistant professor at Kellogg, wrote in an email to The Daily that the collaboration between these three business schools sprung out of personal friendships and similar academic interests. He said the researchers conducted all of their three experiments at the behavioral lab at Stanfords GSB. One might think that generosity would be a virtue (and selfishness a bane) for people who are aspiring to be elevated to high positions of authority and power by others, Livingston wrote. Instead, the study found the opposite was true. According to Livingstone, their research sought to explore how an individuals contribution to a group would affect teammates perceptions of him or her. He said that individuals who more frequently acted in their self-interest achieved a greater sense of prestige within the group even over those who contributed often to the team. The study also asked participants called intergroup members to choose a leader whom they felt would be best in one of two different situations.According to the report, the situations were designed to be either more

SHADI BUSHRA/The Stanford Daily

From left to right: Waveney Hudlin, Kadesia Woods, Tyler Brooks and Jessica Anderson 14 of The Chicago Collective performed at a breast cancer fundraiser in the CoHo, organized by Sigma Theta Psi.

SPEAKERS & EVENTS

Achcar discusses MENA revolutions

Process critical to reflecting on Middle East revolutions
By MARWA FARAG
DESK EDITOR

School of Ed joins STEM initiative

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) joined a nation-wide initiative called 100Kin10, which is designed to improve the performances of American K-12 students in

Please see STEM, page 2

Gilbert Achcar, professor of development studies and international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, delivered a lecture Wednesday evening on the roots and dynamics of the 2011 revolutionary upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Achcar started the lecture with a presentation of development data, comparing the MENA region to other developing regions, drawing particular attention to figures on average annual growth rate, population growth and unemployment rates. There is a lack of development even in relative terms in the region . . . the problem translates above all in the region in record unemployment rates, he said.Here the difference is striking. It is by far the region of the world with highest rates of unemployment, and this has been confirmed over decades. He highlighted youth unemployment, where

Please see ACHCAR, page 5

Please see SELFISHNESS, page 2

Index Features/3 Opinions/4 Sports/6 Classifieds/7

Recycle Me

2 N Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Stanford Daily

STEM

Continued from front page

science, technology, engineering and mathematics STEM departments, according to an announcement from the School of Education. The 100Kin10 program hopes to train 100,000 teachers throughout the next decade in STEM subjects. STEP and the School of Education plan to educate a minimum of 230 STEM teachers to work in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools throughout the country. STEP also retains doctorate and Ph.D. students in the math and sciences who will travel to these schools to act as regulators and co-teachers in the classrooms. Stanford [University] is known for educating outstanding math and science teachers, said education professor Rachel Lotan, director of STEP. We are among the very few university-based programs involved in [the initiative]. Lotan added that the teachers involved in this program will be able to apply their experience to other nation-wide programs to improve the performance of American students. In order to achieve this goal, STEP has developed cri-

teria to measure the STEM teachers effectiveness. Over 80 organizations, in business and in education, have made commitments to help recruit and foster teachers for this initiative. Nearly $20 million was initially pledged to 100Kin10 by foundations and corporations supporting the recruitment of STEM teachers. 100Kin10 was first announced at the Clinton Global Initiative America Meeting in Chicago in 2011. There, former President Bill Clinton urged corporations and foundations to support the initiative. President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have also praised the program, encouraging the programs integrated strategy. Currently, the United States is lagging behind other countries in the math and sciences, including China and Finland. 100Kin10 will prepare, recruit and support 100,000 teachers over the next 10 years to prepare all American students with the skills needed to excel in both the sciences and mathematics. By improving education in the math and sciences, 100Kin10 hopes to provide students with the tools needed to solve the nations current and predicted problems.
Josee Smith

MICHAEL KHEIR/The Stanford Daily

The Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) recently joined the nation-wide initiative 100Kin10, designed to improve the performance of American K-12 students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

SELFISHNESS
Continued from front page
cooperative or competitive in nature. The cooperative test asked intergroup members to choose a leader who would allocate resources while the competitive test asked the members to choose a leader who would help them in competition against a rival outgroup. These experiments demonstrate that the leaders that people want vary as a function of the intergroup situation, wrote Nir Halevy, co-author of the study and GSB assistant professor, in an email to The Daily. He said that the qualities teammates seek in a leader change depending on the circumstance. Halevy also said that these findings are universally applicable and could shine more light on how a system of leadership develops, whether in offices or on the reality show Survivor. He said the study also explored

the relationship between those who are in an in-group and those who are in an out-group within a society. One interesting finding was that generosity toward out-group members does not lead to respect and admiration in the eyes of others, Halevy said. In fact, it led to lower levels of prestige compared to showing generosity toward ingroup members only. Halevy added that these findings should by no means discourage people in the process of climbing the ladder to show generosity they simply explain the behavioral tendencies of individuals operating in a competitive atmosphere. According to Halevy, the studys co-authors have many ideas about where to take their research next. For instance, he said the study leaves areas open for examination, such as the extent to which aspiring leaders strategically display behaviors that can boost their prestige or dominance, depending on the group context. Contact Alexis Garduno at agarduno@stanford.edu. Countys refusal to internal political disputes. Utz, who formerly opposed Stanfords offer, also attributed the hesitation to miscommunication on behalf of residents, who informed others of false facts relating to the trails remodeling. The county refused Stanfords second offer in 2009 for similar reasons. However, Stanfords General Use Permit prevents the county from fully rejecting the offer that stands now until Dec. 31.

ALPINE

Continued from front page

Santa Clara County. As part of the deal, the University agreed to build a pair of recreational trails worth $19 million from the campus to the surrounding foothills in return for permission to add five million square feet of new buildings on campus. The trail through San Mateo County property runs along Alpine Road from Ladera to Stanford Weekend Acres. As of now, associate professor of immunology PJ Utz a resident of Ladera, one of the San Mateo communities along the trail described the condition of the trail as unsafe for bikers. Utz said the portions of the trail that are only two or three feet wide are at risk of eroding into the creek separating San Mateo County from Santa Clara County. Those sections are also dangerously close to major freeway ramps. The trail as it exists in its current condition is much too dangerous to be used by typical commuting bikers or certainly my kids and family, Utz said. As a taxpayer, as a parent, as a resident and as a biker I think that it would be fiscally irresponsible for the supervisors to not take the money and fix the trail. In addition to voting on Stanfords offer to repair the trail, San Mateo County officials will also vote on granting the county responsibility to design the revamped trail, conducting an environmental review and requesting an extension to complete the remodeling by Dec. 31. For Stanfords part, if Stanford has to comply with this agreement, which we said we would in our 2000 agreement, we would like to see the money go for this purpose because we do have many people in Ladera and Weekend Acres that work at Stanford and [are] alumni . . . that it would be worth the restoration, said Larry Horton, director of government and community relations. Any improvement to the trail afterward would be funded by taxes. From 2000 to 2005, residents of Ladera, Weekend Acres and other communities debated the trails location, ultimately settling on its present site. In 2006, Stanford offered $8.4 million to San Mateo County and $2.8 million to Portola Valley to repair the conditions of the connector trail. Only Portola Valley accepted the offer. Horton attributed San Mateo

The trail as it exists in its current condition is...too dangerous to be used.

Associate Professor of Immunology, Ladera resident
Horton said that current opposition to the offer also stems from residents in Weekend Acres who express legitimate safety concerns they think will come from the remodeling, which should not be ignored. Every safety and traffic issue asked by Weekend Acres must be studied in the Environmental Impact report according to a particular design and then evaluated, Horton said. I can assure you that San Mateo County should not approve it if they do not have a design that is safe and accommodates those matters. Utz, who will be a key speaker at the vote in November, said he is hopeful for the outcome. I think the likely scenario here is that the supervisors will vote to agree to have Stanford pay for designing the trail and then get public feedback for what that trail would look like, Utz said. Contact Ileana Najarro at inajarro @stanford.edu.

Now Open Limited Engagement thetech.org

Challenge Misconceptions with Our New Lecture Series

Dr. PJ Utz,

The Stanford Daily

Thursday, October 20, 2011 N 3

FEATURES
TREND

SAVING THE
Pushing a new image for humanities in an engineers world
By JENNY THAI
DESK EDITOR

AUBRIE LEE/The Stanford Daily

echie or fuzzy? Its a deceptively innocent question, but on a campus in the heart of Silicon Valley, the voices of the humanities can easily be lost in the technical

buzz and clamor of industry. According to Debra Satz, senior associate dean for the humanities and the arts, the decline in humanities enrollment has been a long and enduring trend, and Stanford programs are determined to reverse it. The steady decline in the humanities can be traced back to as far as the 1960s and 70s. For Stanford, the

60s were the golden age for humanities more than a third of the students majored in the area.Fifty years later, while enrollment for science and engineering classes have grown tremendously, humanities enrollment continues to slip. About 17 percent of students at Stanford major in the humanities, Satz wrote in an email to The Daily. We have a declining number of students taking classes in the humanities beyond the mandated requirements like IHUM. Stanfords flagging numbers in the humanities are an anomaly in the United States.According to a survey conducted by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences,the number of humanities bachelors degrees has actually experienced healthy growth over the last decade after experiencing a slight depression. Some argue that the strength of the humanities at least in the eyes of the public is simply dwarfed in comparison to the gargantuan sci-

ence and engineering departments. Stanford has an image problem, said professor of classics Richard Martin. People think of it as MIT West, so those who are interested in medieval history or Islamic studies dont apply here. One factor contributing to the perception of Stanford as the holy land of technology so dubbed by medieval history professor Philippe Buc may come from the relatively small percentage of admits interested in the humanities. The cultivation of a techie-driven reputation, in theory, results in a self-selecting applicant pool that leans heavily toward science and engineering. About the same number of our incoming admits say that they are interested in the humanities, Satz said. Our applicant pool looks roughly like our admit pool in terms of humanities interest. On top of having only a modest number of humanities-inclined in-

coming students, humanities departments are also faced with the all-familiar force of parental pressure to pick the right major. Ive seen firsthand the kind of culture that quickly develops . . . the peer and parental pressure that pushes students into supposedly vocational majors, wrote English Department Chair Gavin Jones in an email to The Daily. Given that the lifetime earnings of science and engineering majors are significantly higher than those of humanities majors, the desire for financial stability is not completely unfounded. But Martin warns students against drawing the conclusion that a humanities degree is equitable to financial self-destruction. We need to wean people from the idea that humanities are not useful,Martin said.You can do a liberal arts degree and still get a job.And I dont mean like working in a library

Please see FUZZY, page 4

PROFILE

hen Stanfords Program in Human Biology (HumBio) was first introduced a little over 40 years ago, it was praised for its uniquely interdisciplinary nature one that combined the two seemingly disparate areas of social science and hard science. It was in a way revolutionary, for at the time interdisciplinary programs were few and far between. Forty years after the first graduating class in the program, the human biology major

HumBio hits 40 W
By ANDREW DUONG
Please see HUMBIO, page 4

has grown to be the largest undergraduate major at Stanford. We try to integrate across multiple disciplines, said Carol Boggs, director of the HumBio program. Students really understand that this is necessary if were going to solve the worlds problems. The HumBio major is rooted in the core, a set of six classes three science and three social science that every student in the major must take, usually in his or her sophomore year.

OLLIE KHAKWANI/The Stanford Daily

4 N Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Stanford Daily

OPINIONS
D ON T S WEAT
THE

S MALL S TUFF
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Board of Directors Kathleen Chaykowski President and Editor in Chief Anna Schuessler Chief Operating Officer Sam Svoboda Vice President of Advertising Theodore L.Glasser Michael Londgren Robert Michitarian Nate Adams Tenzin Seldon Rich Jaroslovsky

Perfectly imperfect L
et me just begin by saying that this column has been a struggle. I literally agonized for days over the subject matter. Sure, I had a few ideas, but none of them seemed good enough or appropriately timed for the circumstances of this particular week. Body painting? Too trite. Reunion Homecoming? Way too obvious. Lemon zest? (Yes, that was an option for this weeks column.) Too obscure. I sat and waited for inspiration to descend upon me in a golden haze. I took long walks, hoping my Eureka! moment would come somewhere between Alvarado and Gerona. Not one bit. The column youre reading now is not the original version. My previous draft was demolished when Microsoft Word shut down unexpectedly just as I was hitting the save button which, as a side note, wouldnt have happened if I had been working on my laptop, but thats been in the shop for a week after I splashed water all over its logic board. Could I do nothing right this week? Could nothing happen in my favor? I felt like throwing my hands up and screaming, I give up, okay! Obviously, its just not meant to happen. So, sighing, I picked up the phone, cancelled the hair appointment Ive been meaning to have for the past seven months (by God, this will happen at some point!), paid the cancellation fee and started to write. Originally, I was going to try and redo the column from memory, but something made me stop. I was trying too hard to make this the perfect column. All those times I had dismissed my ideas because they werent exactly the right fit for this week had no bearing on the merit of the ideas themselves, but more about my insecurity over how people might perceive them. Deep down, I think I was scared that people would judge me for what I considered important enough to write about. In trying to write a column for someone else, I had second-guessed myself and lost my own voice. We all want to control what people think of us and whether they like us.And when things dont work out whether thats in a relationship, an assignment, a project or just life in general I, at least, blame it on my own actions or lack thereof. If only I had tried that much harder, said something else or acted differently . . . Things could have been different. More aptly, I could have made things different. But thats all a fallacy. There is only so much we can do in order to change or control the situation. Im definitely not advocating a passive approach to life, but sometimes, life throws you a curveball that you couldnt have predicted. Nothing

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The Stanford Daily

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Leslie Brian

How you react to a situation matters so much more than how you try to preempt it. Because more often than not,things dont go as planned.
you could have done would have changed the situation, so why second-guess yourself to begin with? Over-thinking is just your insecurity talking. Acting is your confidence talking. Do what feels right in the moment. Nothing is wrong with believing in your own voice and following your own ideas. Trying to craft something in the hopes that another person will like it ultimately leaves you feeling empty and unsatisfied. There is no such thing as the perfect column. Theres no such thing as the perfect schedule or the perfect day or the perfect routine. As much as we all want a semblance of control over our lives, theres a certain amount of uncertainty that we all need to accept in life. This whole week has been an exercise in (im)perfection for me. Nothing seemed to go right. But that doesnt mean it was all a waste. How you react to a situation matters so much more than how you try to preempt it. Because more often than not, things dont go as planned, no matter how much you may have tried to manipulate the outcome. And sometimes, what we see as imperfect may just end up being the best thing that happens to us. Leslie seriously wants to talk to someone about lemon zest. If thats your thing, then you should email her at labrian@stanford.edu.

Contacting The Daily: Section editors can be reached at (650) 721-5815 from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. The Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal business hours. Send letters to the editor to eic@stanforddaily.com, op-eds to editorial@stanforddaily.com and photos or videos to multimedia@stanford daily.com. Op-eds are capped at 700 words and letters are capped at 500 words.

DOS

AND

D OO -D OO S

Breaking the Stanford Bubble!

eres this weeks hot advice!

DO: Break the Stanford Bubble. DOO-DOO: Poop in someone elses toilet . . . I trekked across the Bay to spend a night in the fascinating world of Berkeley last weekend. Now before you sharpie traitor over my face, burn the newspaper and piss on the ashes. (Im not sure what the equivalent of disrespectful vandalism would be for Internet readers. Maybe turn me into a WTF?!?! gif?), please allow me to make my view of Berkeley perfectly clear. I hate the school of Berkeley, but I rather enjoy the city of Berkeley. (To be honest, I dont really hate Berkeley minus the unspeakable 2009 Big Game. But I am trying to encourage a healthy rivalry. So . . . suck it, Cal.) Some of my high school friends from the L.A. area had traveled up for USCs Weekender game against Cal, so I hopped on CalTrain to BART for a mini reunion.(You may be wondering where my reluctant cheering landed for such a game, considering I have an honest dislike for all things USC. I was cheering for some anomaly in our logical universe to emerge, allowing both teams to lose. The same thing I cheer for whenever the Yankees play the Red Sox.) We had a party at my friends house off campus, and it was extremely enjoyable. I got to catch up with old friends. I got to meet boat people from all over California who were there for some giant sailing race called a regatta. I mistook regatta for ricotta, so when they kept saying, I drove here from San Diego for the regatta, I kept looking around the house for some

amazing Italian cheese that was apparently worth a seven-hour drive. But the highlight of my night was hands-down getting to crack the case of The Poop Intruders (aka the Dookie Duo)! (Those of you that have emailed me complaining about the lack of poop jokes in a column titled Doo-Doos, well, this dumps for you.) Apparently two girls had drunkenly broken into the Cal womens soccer teams house next door (while they were inside), locked the soccer team out of their own bathroom and then escaped out the window to find the refuge of anonymity in our party filled with random boat people. The soccer girls were furious and threatened to call the cops on the party if the situation wasnt rectified (more like rectum-fied . . . lolz!). A few of us went back to their house with the intent of climbing back through the window and unlocking the door, hoping that would be the end of things. But once in the bathroom, shit hit the fan. Literally. (Just kidding, not literally. But that wouldve been awesome.) The two intruders had left a message . . . in the form of a rather large dookie floating in the middle of the bowl.A senseless crime? Perhaps. A scentless crime? By no means. The party became a witch-hunt. My friends and I had some fun popping up in various areas around the room and proudly proclaiming in our best Spartacus voice, I am the pooper! The whole ordeal turned into a bizarre and unforgettable night, and it only could have happened because of my journey to Berkeley. One of the best ways to get the most out of your Stanford experience is to get away from Stanford. (Its paradoxical, so it must be true!)

Chase Ishii
Get off campus, if possible, on a regular basis. But, Chase, theres always something going on here. I love it here. Why would I want to leave? Because Stanford is not the real world. Part of the college experience is preparing for the real world, and this is not the real world. Minimum wage isnt eleven dollars an hour. There isnt as much appreciation or tolerance for diversity.There are people that may have never heard of your major (Im looking at you, Symbolic Systems). The real world isnt seen through cardinalcolored glasses. But the real world is a lot more interesting. Theres a Stanford bubble that we are well aware of. When I go to shows in San Francisco once a month, theres an emo/hardcore music bubble to explore.Theres another at my church in Menlo Park every Sunday. And another down south at UC-Santa Cruz. Theres an entire exciting world to explore and interesting people to meet, but it requires getting away from Stanford. Most of us are here at Stanford because we intend to change the world in some way or another, but that requires being part of that world. That requires breaking the Stanford Bubble. If you need a reason or excuse to get off campus (especially if youre a cute girl and want to get dinner), email Chase at ninjaish@stanford.edu.

FUZZY

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evision shows and video games as mediums for exploring storytelling. The insight we gained in humanities over millennia . . . we can apply those skills to look at shows like Battlestar Galactica, or Dexter or The Wire, Eshel said. These shows touch upon issues like drug addiction, role of the media, corruption issues that are very relevant to this world. Other departments are also working to throw off the assumption that humanities are entrenched in the past. For instance, the Department of History developed a series of interdisciplinary tracks specially designed to guide students academic interests towards a specific career path. Their newest track, Global Affairs and World History, is geared toward students who seek to apply their history studies towards a career in government, business and non-governmental organizations. Acquiring deep knowledge about multiple parts of the globe, learning to ask probing questions and construct arguments, evaluating evidence and writing and speaking effectively are all timeless skills in a globalizing world, wrote History Department Chair Karen Wigen in an email to The Daily. With the advancements in technology leading to globalization, humanities departments also see an opportunity to take the skillsets their students develop and apply them in a more pragmatic setting. [Societies] change and develop, but were constantly going back to the languages,said Gabriella Safran, chair of the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages (DLCL). Students need real literacy and real fluency. Students need to understand just how important it is to become multilingual and global citizens. Confronted with declining enrollment in foreign language classes beyond the second year, the DLCL launched a new program that will provide funding to any students majoring or minoring in any department under the DLCL to go abroad and conduct research, a move that Safran hopes will encourage students to take more advanced language classes. Our mission is to get half of Stanford students to minor in a modern language, she said. Other departments such as English are optimistic that restructuring and developing new curriculum will bolster student enthusiasm while showcasing its versatility in other disciplines. We cant wave a magic wand, Jones said.But we can think about offering a course on Harry Potter, or on new media, or on environmental writing, or in the medical humanities. The concerted efforts of the humanities departments to add a fresh and interdisciplinary focus to their curriculums will hopefully dispel the pervasive conception that the Stanford students academic interests are bifurcated into either the humanities or engineering. The fuzzy-techie divide is a myth thats been made real, Martin said. Not only is it really demeaning to the fuzzy side, but its just an excuse for one side not to [have anything to] do with the other. Contact Jenny Thai at jthai1@stanford.edu.

HUMBIO

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advisee who was one of the three accredited members of the delegation to the UN from Tuvalu he was able to watch UN security discussions in Iraq, Boggs said. Another student worked for a Colorado professional soccer team in the training room. Of course many students can also choose to fulfill the internship requirement through more traditional means, such as shadowing a physician or working in a Stanford laboratory. Nevertheless, each student gains a unique experience from his or her work. Year after year, students continue to declare HumBio as their major despite the apparent rigor. Perhaps the most compelling reason for their decisions is the sense of community among HumBio students. People would much rather work together to achieve something rather than work against each other separately,Wixon-Genack said. My [study] group would spend hours and hours and hours together, Leos added. Obviously it was really a tiring experience,but I had a lot of fun doing it. As the HumBio program welcomes the 40th reunion of its first graduating class, current students, alumni and faculty gather to celebrate. Of course, none of it would have been possible without the dedicated faculty, according to WixonGenack. The professors and the people who are involved in HumBio and have made it what it is today have done a great service to Stanford, she said. Contact Andrew Duong at atduong @stanford.edu.

or going to grad school and wasting five years of your life. With declining student interest, humanities departments have been forced to adopt a number of strategies to defend the value of their respective fields and market them to students. Professors dont like to deal with the idea of having to market their field, Martin said. But humanities are pushed into that position. Were fighting an anti-intellectual and vocational mentality. Classics has been one of the few humanities departments that have experienced a slow but steady growth, at least partially thanks to aggressive advertising and a strong presence in IHUM and freshman Introductory Seminars.Classics also invested a significant amount of time developing an appealing curriculum. It includes a series of entrylevel classes such as classical mythology, which are designed to attract a broad range of students, and brings in senior faculty members to teach classes with low enrollment. The hardest sell is Intro to Greek, which usually attracts 15 to 20 students, Martin said. We support their interest theyre getting our most seasoned professors. Other departments, such as Comparative Literature, have adopted similar tactics in an effort to make their respective fields more salient to an increasingly technology-oriented society. For instance,Amir Eshel,chair of undergraduate studies, comparative literature will be teaching a seminar titled Narrative and Ethics, which will look at not only traditional forms of literature but also films,tel-

The core is a really big time commitment, said Jenna WixonGenack 12, a student advisor for the HumBio department. Boggs described the core more humorously. Its a serious bonding experience, she said with a smile. Despite the time commitment, many students find the core a worthwhile and rewarding experience. The core is a very wonderful learning experience, one that I really enjoyed and one that is somewhat unique in that it is a very well-constructed learning experience, said Wixon-Genack. It can be a much more significant experience than taking just one class. The major grants students a great deal of freedom. Students can choose their own area of concentration, which can cover many topics including the environment and environmental policy, biomedical science and brain and behavior. It is so flexible by design, said Cristina Leos 13, who worked at the Stanford Prevention Research Center last summer. You could have a focus on psychology or evolution or anthropology if you wanted to. Its a broad scope. It allows people from different backgrounds to find an area that theyre interested in. The final component of the HumBio major is perhaps the most intriguing one: students are required to participate in an internship that relates to their area of concentration. These internships combine classroom experience with practical situations, a combination that can produce incredible experiences. A couple of years ago I had an

The Stanford Daily

Thursday, October 20, 2011 N 5

process and it is far from finished. Achcar described the process as uneven. He stated that Tunisia and Egypt completed stage one, which consisted of toppling its former rulers Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak. The remnants of their regimes however, remain. The mass movement was able to overthrow, topple the tip of the iceberg, he said. This is the correct characterization, because its only the top of the iceberg the person most closely representing the despotic character. This has been done while the regime in both countries is still there. Achcer emphasized that although the protests across the MENA region share common roots and features, differences between states and societies have led and will continue to lead to differences in how the revolutionary processes unfold. Certainly what started in December 2010 in the Middle East and North Africa wont be stopping anytime soon . . . its a protracted process . . . the outcome of what we are seeing will be determined by whoever comes to prevail, he said. Professor of history Joel Beinin moderated the question and answer session following the lecture. Attendees posed questions about geopolitical factors, implications for Lebanon in wake of the Arab Spring, the different approach to reform in Morocco and Jordan, the nature of democratic transformations, U.S. regional policy, local workers movements, the relationship between capitalism and sovereignty and future scenarios for Syria. The lecture was co-sponsored by the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, CDDRL Program on Arab Reform and Democracy and Stanford Humanities Center. Contact Marwa Farag at mfarag @stanford.edu.

ACHCAR

Continued from front page

the figures are even larger, yet showed evidence against the perception that the proportion of youth in the total population is higher than in other regions around the world. Achcar moved from his exposition on general conditions in the MENA region to identify crony capitalism and despotism as roots of the 2011 movements. The reason for all this . . . is the kind of capitalism that we find in the region, which is crony capitalism at its worst, he said. There is little incentive for private capital to get into big or long-term investment. Most of the kind of capitalism you have is hit-and-run kind of capitalism. Achcar indicated that countries that combine corruption and despotism tend to have the strongest protest movements. According to Achcar, the question to be asked, however, is not how the revolutions occurred but why they took so long, given the regions conditions. This was no lightning in the blue sky or anything of the kind this was expected, he said. Of course no one could have predicted the form of it. This form was largely shaped by satellite television, namely Al Jazeera, as well as social media. Revolution in communication technology is very much at the center of the way it spread . . . not the cause, but the way it spread, he said, describing the moniker Facebook revolution as caricatural. Achcar also favored the term revolutionary processes over revolutions. I would call what is happening a revolutionary process, emphasizing process, he said. It really indicates that we are going through a

SOPHOMORE SLUMP
By MARSHALL WATKINS While the Sophomore Celebration has been a tradition at Stanford for the past 12 years, an increasing number of universities across the nation are beginning to hold similar ceremonies for their second-year students in an effort to combat the sophomore slump. Sophomore slump is a phenomenon in which students in their second year of college struggle academically compared to their freshman year. Nearly one quarter of all sophomore college students are affected by the slump, according to a study by higher education professor Laurie Schreiner at Azusa Pacific University. While opinion remains divided on the extent to which the slump phenomenon prevails at Stanford, most sophomores noted a significant transition between campus life in their freshman and sophomore years. Sophomore slump is an actual thing because people go from their excited freshman dorms with open doors . . . to sophomore dorms or upperclass dorms, said Eric Yurko 13. Youre with your friends, but so is everyone else.Theyre not really super interested in making friends. Sophomore Celebration was the first event in a planned series of sophomore-oriented occasions and was attended by approximately half of the Class of 2014. Co-President Dhruv Amin 14 noted that this years sophomore class govMCT ernment sought to expand the programming available to the Class of 2014 in order to combat the slump. According to Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) director Dr.Ron Albucher, sophomore usage of university counseling services does increase compared to freshman year. However, Dr. Albucher indicated that this increase is not related to the sophomore slump, nor the transition between freshman and sophomore year. Academically too, the change can be abrupt. In particular, sophomores who may have pursued a preconceived career trajectory throughout their time at university may begin to question their commitment to their chosen subject as the time to decide their major approaches, according to several academic directors interviewed for this article. Kristin Black, Academic Director for Toyon, Crothers and Branner, also noted that since all parts of life [at Stanford] are connected, academic and social problems alike can spread to other parts of students lives. One possibility as to why [sophomore slump] is occurring is that a large number of Stanford students do an assortment of activities in high school that have nothing to do with what they are actually interested in, so when they arrive, they may fall into a similar pattern until they realize Stanford is no longer high school, said Michael Silverman 13. The student government has sought to maintain and expand the academic support system available to sophomores, offering an Academic Advising Initiative to promote advisor interaction with seniors as well as alumni mentoring programs through the Career Development Center. iDeclare week, scheduled for winter quarter, offers extensive advice for sophomores on distinguishing between majors, exploring their academic preferences and then choosing and declaring a major. Students also noted the positive aspects of sophomore year. Koren Bakkegard, associate dean of undergraduate advising and research, linked the increased emphasis on class unity through the 2002 creation of the Freshman Deans Office and the introduction of the Sophomore Celebration to a stronger class spirit that is increasingly evident in alumni activity. In my opinion, I feel like the sophomore slump is something that affects people who dont make the effort to meet other people, said Tyler Woods 14. Yes, work may be harder and youre stressed with finding a major and getting better grades, but I dont think people should lose sight of the fact that other things matter in college as well. Contact Marshall Watkins at mtwatkins@stanford.edu.

Stanford combats

STUDENT LIFE

COMMUNITY
Continued from front page
believe the Boards creation is a step in the right direction. There are many communities on campus and we recognize that not everyone is represented on the board, the CAB said in a joint statement to The Daily. Thus we strive to work with existing resources that are already aimed at the entire student body in hopes of engaging as many students as possible. The Community Board said that its primary goals are to align and work with existing resources on campus, to streamline communication between communities and their CAB representatives, to encourage dialogue within the board and across campus about the definition of community, and to increase awareness about the different communities on campus. According to Michael Cruz 12, ASSU President, the CAB has been working on cross-community initiatives and projects within their community. Cruz cited last weeks Disability Resource Fair as an example of one of the CABs initia-

tives, describing the event as a great success. The CAB hopes that through its projects and increased communication, the Board will foster greater understanding and tolerance within the larger Stanford community. Many members of the communities represented on the board, when interviewed by The Daily, knew little of the boards purpose. Some were unaware of the boards existence. I actually dont know anything about the ASSU Community Board besides the fact that it exists, since I know the representative for the Christian community personally, said Josh Wong 14, a member of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. I am not aware of any communication yet between the board and Christian community members. I doubt most community members even know about the board at all. Macgregor-Dennis attributed this apparent general lack of knowledge among students about the CAB to the fact that the board is currently working behind the scenes. He said he expects the board to launch an outreach initiative sometime during winter quarter. Contact Marianne LeVine at mlevine2@stanford.edu.

DAILY BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

MONDAY OCT. 24, 7 P .M., LOKEY BUILDING

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6 N Thursday, October 20, 2011

SPORTS

The Stanford Daily

START ME UP AGAIN
WOMENS TENNIS KICKS OFF NEW SEASON
By CHRISSY JONES
STAFF WRITER

The Stanford womens tennis team is already back at work, kicking off its 2011-12 campaign this month and rebounding from a heartbreaking loss to Florida in last years NCAA Championship match to start the year on a good note. This past weekend, sophomores Elizabeth Ecker and Amelia Herring, freshman Ellen Tsay and senior Veronica Li represented the Cardinal in the St. Marys Invitational. The headline of the weekend was Tsay, the sole freshman on the squad, who made it all the way to the semifinal round of the tournament. I had a great time because Im not used to having teammates pump me up during and in between my points, Tsay said of her first college tennis match. Just hearing Hear we go, Card really boosted my morale, especially in a tight match. Tsay cruised through her first round match, defeating Megan Heneghan of UCDavis with ease, 6-1, 6-0. Her second match was closer, as she beat Saint Marys Jade Frampton 7-5, 6-2. Tsay won by default in the quarterfinals, then dropped the first set against Saint Marys Jenny Julien 6-4 in the semifinals, but came back ready to play in the second set. The entire match was up and down, Tsay said. I lost the first set, but in the second set,I felt I stepped up my game and controlled the court. Tsay rallied from a 4-1 deficit to come back and take the set 6-4. [Julien] became more and more frustrated in the second set,which allowed me to get back in it, she said. It all reversed in the third set, though, as

Tsay fell 7-5 after leading 4-1. She regained her confidence and came back to win, Tsay admitted. It was a great experience and could have gone either way. The main thing is, Ill learn from what I failed to do, namely closing out the match, and continue working on my game. Ecker described the team atmosphere that Tsay highlighted as a big reason for her good play this past weekend. [Ellen] definitely adds a lot of character and spunk to the team, Ecker said. Shes adjusting to college life and the independence that comes with it, as each of us did, so the teams a great source of support and motivation for her. Ecker and Herring were both defeated in the first round of the tournament, and Li made the round of sixteen.The doubles duo of Herring and Tsay made the quarterfinals before defaulting due to Herring suffering an injury. Regardless of their own results, Tsays teammates were all impressed by how their new freshman played. She did such a great job staying calm and keeping her composure under pressure in the first match of her college career, Ecker said,and we are all so proud of her. The weekend prior to St. Marys Invitational,the Cardinal sent junior Mallory Burdette, sophomore Nicole Gibbs and junior Stacey Tan to Pacific Palisades, Calif. to represent the Cardinal in the ITA All-American Championships. After losing her first round singles match to Alabamas Mary Anne Macfarlane, Burdette flew through four consolation rounds to capture the consolation title over Floridas Joanna Mather, 6-1, 6-2. Burdette and Gibbs proved to be a for-

SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily

Please see WTENNIS, page 8

Sophomore Nicole Gibbs (above) and the Stanford womens tennis team are looking to improve on last years NCAA runner-up finish. They kicked off their season across the Bay last weekend.

SWIMMING AND DIVING

By GEORGE CHEN Both the men and womens swimming and diving teams are coming off impressive performances this past weekend as they prepare to swim against Utah at the Avery Aquatic Center on Thursday. The mens team won the two-day Pacific Invitational despite only attending the Saturday session. Lots of credit goes to the freshman class freshman Jonathan Edwards won three individual

Jack Blanchat

Cardinal welcomes new Pac-12 foe

events and classmates David Nolan and Eric Peske were among others who displayed auspicious early-season speed. The womens team dominated their own two-day George Haines Invitational at home, winning 17 out of the total 21 events. Sophomore Andie Taylor led the way, picking up victories in both the 200-meter free and 200-meter fly by considerable margins. Utah, the newest member of the Pac-12, finished fifth at both the men and womens Mountain West Conference Championship last season. In comparison, the Cardinal mens and womens teams won conference titles by sweeping the tougher 2011 Pac-10 Championships. Utah will be the first Pac12 team that the Cardinal swimmers face. We dont know too much about Utah because they just joined the Pac-12, said freshman Ethan Hallowell, a specialist in sprint and mid-distance freestyle events. But its good that were competing against them because well see them down the road at the Pac-12 Championships. Given that the Pac-12 Championships arent until February and the NCAA Championship doesnt take place until March, early season dual meets may not be the teams main concern. Right now, were not too worried about our racing times because its still early in the season, Hallowell added. Were mainly focusing on practices, and in that

Please see SWIM, page 7

NO EASY REBOUND AHEAD

By DAVID PEREZ This weekend will be a change of pace for the Stanford mens water polo team, which is coming off its first loss of the conference season last weekend to UCLA and dropped out of the top spot in the national rankings to number three. The Cardinal (9-3, 2-1 MPSF) opens up a long weekend on Friday night with a visit to Stockton Calif., where it will face No. 6 Pacific. It wont end there, however, as Stanford then has four more games over the weekend, all at Santa Clara against teams from the East Coast on Saturday the Card faces Bucknell and Harvard, followed by Brown and Air Force on Sunday. Stanford previously faced Pacific at the NorCal Invitational in the teams first weekend of the season, knocking off the Tigers 9-8 in overtime. The Cardinals overtime win against Pacific was followed by losses to USC and California in the semifinals and the third-place game, respectively since then, Stanford has beaten both USC and Cal. Still, Pacific boasts a very formidable offense, and Stanford should expect a tough game. They have one of the best 2-meters in the country and some very good outside shooters, said redshirt junior driver Travis Noll in reference to Balazs Erdelyi, who leads the team with 35 goals and was last years MPSF Newcomer of the

Stanford Daily File Photo

Please see WPOLO, page 8

Junior Travis Noll (above) and the mens water polo team suffered a tough loss to No. 3 UCLA last week. With five games in three days starting Friday, things dont get any easier.

y the time you read this column, game one of the World Series will already be in the books, but chances are you didnt watch it anyway. In this non-coastal Fall Classic,plenty of fans are going to tune out due to the fact that the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox are sitting at home drinking beer and eating fried chicken right now. And while those teams carry some of the biggest fan bases with them, they also inspire a lot of people to watch games strictly to root against them. Neither the Rangers nor the Cardinals inspire the same kind of hate reserved for those big-money teams, so who should you, the fan with no rooting interest, cheer for in this World Series reserved for teams from states that border my home state of Arkansas? Ive provided a few reasons for each team just ahead. Reasons to root for the Cardinals: 1.Albert Pujols:He is the best player in baseball, and he puts on a prom for kids with Down Syndrome every year.Theres no reason not to like this future first-ballot Hall of Famer unless youre one of the teams that hes dominated over the years. 2. America: The Cardinals centerfielder is named Jon Jay, and if you know your American history,youll recall that John Jay was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.Is this a tenuous reason to root for a team? Yes. But Im willing to bet that its the reason why history professor Jack Rakove, a Cubs fan, will be rooting for the Cardinals. 3.Jonah Keri:This writer for ESPN spinoff website Grantland has a little crush on the Rangers; as in, he will not stop writing about the Rangers.Why is this a reason not to root for Texas? Because if Texas wins, Keri will probably want to write another book like his sloppy, boring tome on the rise of the Tampa Bay Rays,The Extra Two Per-

Who should you root for now?

Please see BLANCHAT, page 8

The Stanford Daily

Thursday, October 20, 2011 N 7

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Stanford Daily File Photo

The Stanford swimming and diving teams will introduce new Pac-12 member Utah to the conference this weekend, with both the Cardinal men and womens teams riding high after each team won its tournament last weekend.

SWIM

Continued from page 6

respect, weve started out the season really well. Even with the emphasis on practices, both the mens and womens teams are undefeated in dual meets and invites so far this season. The mens team has dominated Centenary College, UC-Santa Cruz and Hawaii in dual meet situations, while the womens team downed San Jose State in a similar fashion. As for diving, the mens team is loaded with freshmen talent and

upperclassmen experience. The Cardinal may have the top two national recruits from last year in freshmen Kristian Ipsen and Connor Kuremsky, who look to be strong additions to the other five veteran divers. The six women divers show equal promise with one freshman and four upperclassmen. Sophomore Stephanie Phipps, who qualified for last years NCAA Championships in the 3-meter, has already won three straight diving events this season. The Utes are coming in with only five divers total, so the numbers are clearly in the Cardinals favor. Like their swimming counter-

parts, the Cardinal divers are emphasizing practice, particularly accuracy and consistency in routines. Right now, were focusing on training muscle memory during practice, which involves repetitions of simple activities done on land, Kuremsky said.[Head coach Rick] Schavone wants us to be able to dive stupid by the end of season, meaning that we wont even have to think about the dives as were executing them. The Cardinal swimmers and divers host Utah this Thursday at 1 p.m. at Avery Aquatic Center. Contact George Chen at gchen15 @stanford.edu.

8 N Thursday, October 20, 2011

SPORTS BRIEFS
Cardinal baseball releases 2012 schedule
The Stanford baseball team released its 2012 schedule on Wednesday, posting a slate that features series against nine teams that played in the College World Series last season. After a travel-intensive year in 2011 that included three straight road trips to start the season, the Cardinal has home series against Vanderbilt, Texas, Rice, Arizona State and California, and doesnt have a single weekend series away from the West Coast. Expectations will be high for Stanford this season after an appearance in the Super Regionals last year, the Cardinals first since 2008. After defeating Cal State Fullerton, Illinois and Kansas State to advance to the Supers, North Carolina swept the Cardinal in a best-of-three series to end the season. Stanford returns its top nine hitters from last season and boasts three potential first-round draft picks in juniors Mark Appel, Stephen Piscotty and Kenny Diekroeger. The Cardinal also returns junior Tyler Gaffney, who is carrying a 22-game hit streak into 2012, the longest for a Stanford player since 1988, and sophomore Brian Ragira, who was last years Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. On the mound, Stanford will have to answer for the loss of closer Chris Reed, who was a first-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in June, as well as the departures of starters Jordan Pries and Danny Sandbrink and bullpen mainstay Scott Snodgress. Senior lefthander Brett Mooneyham will return to the lineup after missing all of the 2011 season with a hand injury. Stanford baseball will embark on the 2012 season starting Friday, Feb. 17 with a three-game series against Vanderbilt.
Jack Blanchat

The Stanford Daily

JESSICA POPPISH/The Stanford Daily

Junior righthander Mark Appel (above) and the Stanford baseball team face a tough 2012 schedule that includes series against nine teams that played in last years College World Series. The Cardinal opens the season on Feb. 17, 2012 against Vanderbilt.

WPOLO

Continued from page 6

Year as a freshman. The rest of the weekend will provide a different kind of test for the Cardinal. Games against teams from the other side of the country are generally rare for Stanford since the top collegiate water polo teams are concentrated on the West Coast. In fact, no team from the East Coast has ever made it to the championship game of the NCAA Tournament, and in its only other game against an East Coast team this year, Stanford knocked off No. 16 Princeton in a 14-3 landslide. With that said, playing five games in a weekend is sure to be grueling.The players seem up to the task, though. We have been grinding in practice the last couple of weeks, and I think everyone is in peak condition to play optimally this weekend, Noll said. Bucknell is the highest ranked among the four eastern teams at No. 15, but each team would love to spring a big upset to define their season. One factor that will be an advantage for Stanford is the tremendous depth of this years squad. The Cardinal has routinely used a rotation of 12 or 13 players this year, and this weekend might be a chance to expand that even more. Assuming we take care of business early on in the game,it might be a good chance for other players to get some good playing time, Noll said. But Stanford is not letting itself look too far ahead into the weekend. We are concentrating on the first game in practice all week, Noll said. Because that is a conference game, but we dont want to get ahead of ourselves. The two key Stanford players to look at in that game will be freshman utility Alex Bowen and junior two-meter Forrest Watkins. Bowen is the Cardinals leading scorer this season, and as if that was not enough for him to draw a lot of attention from the Tigers, he also

scored five goals against them in their previous meeting. Still, if you ask any of the players on this team, it is not their offense they have to worry about. The reason for our losses have been defensive breakdowns, not because of our offense, said Noll. Because of this, Watkins contributions may be even more important to the outcome of the game. He is Stanfords top 2-meter defender, which means he will be pitted against Pacifics All-American junior center Goran Tomasevic for most of the contest. The Cardinal starts its weekend at Pacific on Friday at 3 p.m., then returns to the Bay Area to take on Bucknell and Harvard on Saturday. The weekend concludes with matches against Brown and Air Force on Sunday. Contact David Perez at davidp3 @stanford.edu.

BLANCHAT
Continued from page 6
cent: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First. If youre a fan of wellwritten books, you should probably root for the Cards. 4. Cardinal: Because if you have to pick a reason,OMG we are the same color almost is probably as good as any other. Reasons to root for the Rangers: 1. Partying: Ron Washington and Josh Hamilton have both dabbled with some special substances in the past, and anyone who likes to throw down a little bit should definitely feel a connection to the kindred spirits wearing red, white and blue. 2. Diversity: The Rangers have players from Japan,Cuba,the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Missis-

sippi.Hooray for tolerance! 3. Tony La Russa: Dont like PETA? La Russa was nominated for PETAs Sexiest Vegetarian in 2007. Dont like drunk driving? La Russa was arrested for DUI back in 2007 (apparently that was a bad year for him).Against Arizonas SB 1070 bill? Tony expressed support for the bill back in 2010. Dont like communicable disease? La Russa contracted shingles in 2011. Do yourself a favor and do not Google image search Tony La Russa shingles.Hes also a whiner.All compelling reasons to root for the Rangers,right? 4. The Underdog factor: The Cardinals have won 10 World Series already.Thats the second-most in baseball history behind the Yankees. Theyre an established franchise. They have real, time-honored rivalries.So far,the Rangers are mostly famous for dumping tons of money into roided out dudes like Alex Rodriguez, Jose Canseco, Rafael

Palmiero and Sammy Sosa. Theyve come from being one of the bottomdweller of the American League to a back-to-back AL champ. Dont jump on the Cardinals bandwagon. The Rangers deserve your love. So there you have it,four reasons to consider supporting each of these teams, with some being helpful and some being not so helpful.If Ive failed to sway you towards either side, I encourage you to tune in anyhow baseball is the best way to pass the week between football games.And all you Yankees, Sox, Giants and Phils fans,just remember:only 116 days until Spring Training! Jack Blanchat hopes youre impressed with his efforts at fairness and political correctness. As a big-time Rangers fan, it took every ounce of his inner southern gentleman. Get ready for game two at blanchat@stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter @jmblanchat.

WTENNIS
Continued from page 6
midable pair as they won five straight matches as a doubles team to seize the doubles championship over Floridas Allie Will and Sofie Oyen, 6-2, 7-6 (2). This coming weekend, Stanford Womens tennis will have the opportunity to demonstrate its dominance in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships here on the Farm. All healthy Cardinal players will be showcasing their talents on their home courts.Tsay in particular is excited to play on her turf for the first time and hopes to use her strengths to her advantage. I try to come into net a lot during the point to finish it off,and I like moving forward in general, she said. I think I have a good court sense that allows me to work the point and move my opponent around, something I intend on doing this weekend. I really want to increase my first serve percentage and hit even more aggressively against my opponents. Contact Chrissy Jones at chrissyj @stanford.edu.